The Associated Students of Western Nevada
February 24, 2015
Dini 105 8:00 A.M.
1. Call to Order: 8:02 A.M.
2. Roll Call: Timothy Hoover present, Ricky Merlin present, Donita Petean present, Jessica Portillo present, Charles Nimsic absent excused, Whitney Lynd tardy excused, Cheyenne Bryant present, Shannon Brazil present, Parker Dixon present, and Lilly Leon-Vicks present. Recruits present are Brennan Neilon, Andrea Ruiz, and James Striplin.
3. Public Comment: Tim: I’m engaged. I just wanted to throw that out there. Mark: The budget hearing has started this morning at 8. It is Higher Ed’s budget hearing before the joint committees meet. Lilly: I printed out the information for the appropriate people to call to share your thoughts with if you have office hours today, I would love it if you would call or email them during that time about weighted credit and bridge funding. Those are our biggest issues right now. Let me see your emails before you send them out as well. Mark: Also, the Britta Hydration station in Fallon will be going forward, and will be funded by GIP. Jessica: GIP? What is that? Mark: It’s General Improvement; it is a student fee. There is quite a bit of money in that account. Lilly: The filters and the lights will still come from ASWN, correct? Mark: I think so. Jessica: Will it be going in this summer? Mark: I’d have to talk to Kevin, our project manager about that. We have a proposal in hand, and if they are given the green light and that there is no interruption, they can get it done this semester. Jessica: I ask because there are a bunch of renovations that will be happening over the summer. Mark: Correct. As soon as the semester ends, the administrative area in Getto will be redone and reconfigured. The multipurpose room, across from the administrative area in Getto, which has three dividers in it, will see the removal of those dividers and the creation of three separate classrooms. Hopefully, there will be an update in the technology as well. The computer lab will be redone and there will be some additional work going on in the science lab. It will be some nice changes for Fallon. The ramp in Bristlecone will be removed as it is not ADA compliant. Cheyenne: Will students still be allowed to be in that area? Mark: It’s a student area that will be cleaned up, and there will be new furniture going through the whole spine of Bristlecone as well.
4. Approval of Minutes: Cheyenne motions to approve the minutes for February 17th, Parker seconds. All in favor, motion passes.
5. Senate Confirmation: Tim: Just as a reminder, the emergency meetings needed approval from the senate for any actions taken and they needed to be documented. I appointed each of you into your positions plus Cheyenne being appointed as the new Vice President of ASWN, upon the senate’s approval. We will be going through and voting on approval for these members one by one. We are going to be doing another vote on each member. I would just like to remind you that the senate does have a lot of power. There is not just a presidential power that chooses everything, it’s us together. The first one is Donita Petean appointed as Secretary: all in favor, motion passes. Parker Dixon appointed as Senator: all in favor, motion passes. Cheyenne Bryant appointed as Vice President all in favor, motion passes. Ricky Merlin appointed as Treasurer, none in favor, none opposed, all abstentions, motion fails. Ricky Merlin has been moved to the position of Senator.
6. Awards and Appreciation: Cheyenne: You had it as information and discussion, so we cannot do anything. Tim: No we can’t. Do you have any questions? Lilly: There is no new information at this time, but the invitations have been approved and will be sent out. So far, we are under budget by a few hundred dollars, which is great. Will probably be used up by the end anyways. Tim: We will be putting this as possible action for next week.
7.Executive Reports: Donita: I have this new contact sheet that will be coming around, especially since we have some new faces that have been joining us. I ask for your name, number, and email so that we can touch base with you and keep you in the loop of what’s happening, especially in regards to elections. Thank you for getting back to me on everything, and thank you for your resilience and hard work during this process. I am also I am going forward with the elections process.
Tim:I don’t have much to report this week. I am just really excited for this elections portion. We will be talking about this more in programming. Cheyenne will be running this.
8. Advisor’s Report: Lilly: I only had two volunteers for education day on March 2. We committed 8 to NSA, and we only have 2. It might be a good idea to be there early. Brennan: Is it possible for us to leave earlier than possible? Lilly: I can have letters for those who need it. What this does, is it gives the notice that you are going to be missing class, but it states that you are still responsible for getting the information that you miss. I will have those by the end of the day. Exciting news for students for degree limits for non-degree students have been lifted, so they can enroll in 18 credits instead of 6. Tricia Winds thanks those who helped out with the jump start students, and you helped out with over 300 students. I met earlier in the week with Susan Trist and the Governor’s Council for disabilities and we talked about Journey of Hope of Friendship for those who have disabilities. It is a great event. It is on June 12th, and I need volunteers for this. I realize that it’s over the summer and in the evening, and I am sure that you all who participated last year enjoyed it. Last thing, is that we have the opportunity to clean out the modular. It needs to be cleaned out by the 13th of March. I think that we should be started on it next week. We should take a couple of mornings or evenings next week. Cheyenne: Do we need to clean it all out? Lilly: We need to tag and reorganize things. Do we need to clean it out? Mark: I would talk to Christina about that. I would also check to see if there is power up there. Lilly: So it is a big task, and we have some things that we need that are up there, such as decorations for Commencement. It is a pretty big task. Mark: I feel like you need to figure out what is and isn’t important. Tim: We will be having a signup sheet for this during programming.
9. Club Reports: Cheyenne: Latino Student Club: They are going to be focusing on their Talent Show and they needed to push it back a little bit. I suggested that they break up into two committees, one focusing on their Talent Show, the other focusing on their Easter Fiesta.
Parker: I am meeting with NSNA at 12:30 today.
Ricky: I am not able to make it to Second Year Nursing Meetings at 1 on Monday’s, and that’s when I am in class. Is anyone able to take it? Donita: I can, since I in up here around that time on Mondays. Lilly: For now, Donita can take it and we’ll ask Charles.
Tim: Veterans: They are doing a Veterans Suicide Walk. It is going to be a huge event. National news worthy. The governor will probably be there. We should be there to give support, as with any other clubs. They are planning on planting 8000 flags. There will be tons of speeches, and it will be quite a tear jerker. They also need help creating banners, they need opinions. It will be on May 2. It is great that they are raising all this awareness.
10. Committee Reports: Donita: General Education: We met on Friday and talked over a lot of things. The first thing they talked about was what constitutes as a general education course? One example that Stephanie Arrigotti gave was about differences between the Musical Theater and Acting courses. The chair, Ryan Stryffeler, mentioned that that definition changes per year once a course has been brought to the table. This is a discussion that they plan on having an extensive discussion about at a later date. Second, Vice President Wynegar talked about our accreditation report. The good news is that North West likes the plan that Western Nevada College has in place. In addition to that, our 7 year report was due soon, but we were given at extra year to get this report done. In this report, we need to prove that we, as a college, are actively pursuing our goals and deadlines, and that we have a clearer mission statement. We were also asked to take the errors in the last 7 year report and talk about them and how we corrected them is this new 7 year report. Another major thing that was brought up was the creation of e-portfolios, where students can have a place to put their best assignments in regards to having something meanwhile from their time in college. This led to a few discussions, but the biggest one was the creation of a Capstone program. A student would take this class, or program, during their last semester and apply everything that they have learned during their time in college in one class, or one project. It was considered to possibly be brought to WNC.
Cheyenne: Curriculum Committee: We had a special meeting to go over the Program Review report for the Associates of Science degree. We weren’t able to make the proper moves on that because they haven’t gone through the proper channels before coming to us about this. We passed both the revised AAS Technology-Construction degree and the revised BTEC Construction degree. We removed Justice Criminal Academy from the program because the Board of Regents is deactivating it. It’s being deactivated because they couldn’t find anyone to fill the position.
Ricky: Academic Committee: We met on Friday. We went over our Policies and Procedures, we figured out what the committee is about. We are going to be changing the entire policies and procedures and then vote on it.
Tim: Budgeting Committee: A lot of money is being cut from the college. We have a certain amount and are spending a certain amount per year. When the government cuts the money, it goes into place for the next 2 years (2016-2017). This year, they have reserved money that was saved up. By 2016, we will be matching the $13 million that the state is giving us. Our only way that we can pay for 2016 is through our reserves. 2017 we will be in the hole by $2 million. We will be looking at what needs to be cut in regards to staff and classes. We also need to look at what we can make money off of for the school. Tim: Bridge funding is so important, and the governor is looking at cutting it. We only got 200 students this semester. Lilly: Correct, and we are hoping to get 400 students this next semester. Tim: Education Day is really important so that we can go and protest and rally to get for our bridge funding in order to help make sure that we are not hurting badly. The budget committee will be prioritizing for the needs for the classes, the wants for the classes, and the survival for the college. I will be putting something on the board that explains how all of this works. It is a lot of work and effort. If students ask now, we can say what it’s about, and that we need this. James: When do the protests start? Tim: I will find out and let you know. Lilly: They started today at 8. You may not be able to make them, but emails will be able to work. I actually have a chart that breaks down the budget committee. Following the big recession, your faculty and staff took their furloughs and lost $500 million dollars to help out. For students, your degree success and completion rates are what we are really looking at. Brennan: What happens if you transfer before your associates? Lilly: Completion that moves you to the Bachelor’s level is totally acceptable. It’s the failures and the no shows are what hurts us the most. We do not get the funding or the credit for the student who gets the Fs. The community colleges get hit the most with these budgets. NSHE has made us the number 2 requirement to make sure that we get the help that we need, which is pretty awesome. You can show your support by speaking out. Your success is essential for success for the college.
11.Old Business: None to report at this time.
12.New Business: Tim: Awards and Appreciation will be going on the agenda next week for Possible Action. Lilly: The president’s job is to create the agenda and the items on the agenda item.
13.Public Comment: Donita: The graduation deadline is March 2nd. Cheyenne: What are the scholarship deadlines? Andrea: March 5th. Lilly: There is a lot of money on the table, so apply! Applications for scholarships are now available. Tim: When they give you certain requirements, put the efforts in. Andrea: There is a workshop on the 25th from 130-230 in the conference room in Dini. Lilly: I would love for every single one of you to apply. Tim, from the Veteran’s Club, got the most scholarships in WNC History. Jayden: Niche is a website that offers a lot of great scholarship opportunities that help students out as well. Tim: I would be careful with those websites in general. Jayden: Of course. Niche is recognized as an accredited source. Jessica: Chegg is a great source too. Andrea: Chegg does great opportunities for getting singers to come to the school. It’s all based on students voting for it.
14. Adjournment: 8:51 A.M.